Many thought that Asian Dub Foundation (right) were unlucky not to scoop the Technics Mercury Music Prize after having made the shortlist with their Rafi's Revenge album, an exhilaratingly angry fusion of breakbeats, punk, rap and traditional Asian vibes. Onstage, ADF's political consciousness is even more of a full-on proposition, as they add extra decibels and energy to already charged-up numbers like "Naxalite" and "Free Satpal Ram". Jazz- sampling, funky New York lo-fi rockers Soul Coughing are an inspired if not an obvious choice for a support band.

CULTURE SECRETARY Chris Smith is to launch an annual fast-track scholarship for 10 talented musicians in an effort to build on the worldwide success of the British pop industry - now estimated to be worth more than pounds 2bn a year.

Red Snapper - the thinking junglist's quartet. Well, that's how they might cheer themselves up in one of their bleaker moments. Not that they've got a lot to feel down about - between the jazz and dub influences which their preference for real instrumentation immediately suggests, along with the visceral contemporary break beat, Red Snapper have mastered a tricky brief. It's just that Roni Size's output isn't a million miles away in form and approach, and look how far he's got. Oh well.

There's a wonderfully daft publicity photo of Reprazent where the members of the drum'n'bass collective are shown linked together by wires that appear to plug directly into the gravity-defying dreadlocks of Roni Size, while Roni himself stands, palms outstretched, looking to the heavens as if receiving signals from a higher power. The image of an electronic Christ-figure might be pushing it a bit, but Size is the hippest jungle producer of the moment, with an underground reputation of Bakerloo-line proportions. A series of singles for the Bristol-based Full Cycle and Dope Dragon labels, appearances on compilation albums and sundry re-mixes for others have ensured that he has become the face of drum'n'bass. His debut album for a major label is out at last and a live show to promote this most machine-bound of musics has been sent out on the road to do or die.

I've never been able to get much of a handle on Texas, whose style seems to change with each successive album. This time round, singer Sharleen Spiteri has described White on Blonde as a "modern soul record", which isn't too far from the mark, though sometimes the soul equation is a little formulaic - the opening track "Say What You Want" crosses a lyric line from "Sexual Healing" with a guitar line from "Tired of Being Alone" without quite emulating either. Later on, the band's Supremes impression on "Black Eyed Boy" is correct in every detail, right down to the tambourine accenting the Motown beat.

Although he has been responsible for some of the most innovative drum 'n' bass music to date, A Guy Called Gerald is as anonymous as the technology he uses. And he likes it that way. Interview by Ben Thompson

Like drum 'n' bass, ambient is a genre which relies on making a little go a very long way; the resultant glut of weedy minimalist pastiches barely bears a cursory listen for the most part, but this collaboration between Harold Budd and Hector Zazou demonstrates better than any recent offering how the spaces between the sounds can be made pregnant with possibility.

The annual tournament in Groningen in the Netherlands has just begun with an exceptionally strong field including the Fide world champion, Anatoly Karpov, and his challenger, Gata Kamsky. Amiong the other grandmasters are Michael Adams and 16-year-old Peter Leko.